Although MOO3 was a flop, I must admist that not everything was bad about it, I found some of the race quite intriguing such ar the eoladi and the Imsaeis. Also, the Ithkul could prove to be a very horrific threat to any race in MOO... right after the Antarans

as a welder I can tell you it is hard to weld in any atmosphere you can breath yet people do it every day and under water. to me the answer is simple aquatic creatures would either developed new ways such refining with acid baths eventually I will concede that I personally can't conceive of a way to get things done without a little O2 and open air in your life. but that is easily solved with the exact same systems submarines, vacuum chambers and air locks used every day in our modern world.

Or think about how blacksmiths would be like the pearl divers of their world able to surface for in some cases up to 8 minutes at time and work hard in the process. people do that for what is effectivly a shiny round natural polymer with very little practical value imagine what people would do for a metal sword in a world of rock spears?

It's not an issue about life, but technological life. Smelting ore is kind of hard when you can't start a fire.

What if they grow their ships, rather than manufacture them? Organic based technology with ship hull made of super hardened seashell type material. And Trilarians were supposed to be Transdimensional beings, so maybe other creatures native to their planet are too? They could use some sort of Transdimensional whale as a ship engine. Not as plausible as the normal technological route, but would make their racial background more interesting.

What if they grow their ships, rather than manufacture them? Organic based technology with ship hull made of super hardened seashell type material. And Trilarians were supposed to be Transdimensional beings, so maybe other creatures native to their planet are too? They could use some sort of Transdimensional whale as a ship engine. Not as plausible as the normal technological route, but would make their racial background more interesting.

yeah I hate bio ships personally the only good version of Jonah and the space whale I ever remotely liked was the wrath ships from Star gate Atlantis but even then all I could say was they did a less crappy job than everyone else.

We also have to remember that our view of technology is almost inevitably human-centric. We view basic technologies like smelting and metallurgy from our own history and terran geological limitations. Old sci-fi can be a goldmine to find work-arounds for this. Take Robert Heinlein's Venusians - there planet was (in his universe) dominantly aquatic-amphibious, and their technology grew from intense use of things like catalysts, which can justify metal-work at lower temperatures and with different mechanisms than we use because our own environment makes the process of "Light a fire and melt stuff" more useful than, "Add the following chemicals and the following materials will melt themselves and recombine usefully". Or to take another example, imagine a race that developed microwave technology and cannot believe that other species are still setting fire to things for indirect heat transfer etc. Another technology (and admittedly a favorite of mine) is the use of sonics - apply resonant frequencies and suddenly materials behave very oddly and potentially usefully for refinement and recombination.

I remember a discussion/argument on the old MoO3 forums regarding the limits of intelligence based on organism size; most of the discussion was a little unhelpful, but the better points that came out was that many of the examples given were made locked into the base assumption that any and ALL alien races would have the same limitations of Earth Biology. The joy of a sci-fi universe is that we -should- be able to step outside of these limitations with a bit of imagination. I am not saying that, as one author said, "Aliens might have square wheels just because they are aliens" - we try and recognize where limitations of chemistry or physics are -probably- universal - but also occasionally try and look with fresh eyes at a particular 'limitation' and think, "But if there -was- another way to deal with this limitation, how might other species accomplish this?".

Another example (apologies for the length of the comment) is the touted "Square-Cube Law". The dsiscussion occasionally raises its head that, "Aliens cannot get larger than X because the 'Square-Cube Law' dictates that they would collapse under their own weight." Well, sure... based on terran biology. But we don't apply that law to things like buildings - no one says, "You can't have a building larger than 9 feet tall because meat-and-bone structures can't cope with it." We recognize that there are other materials and architecture that gets around these limits. So if you want Klackons to be human size, most of us have little difficulty saying, "Sure, a Lobster that size would die, but a different, alien internal structure and/or different materials used in their biology would allow a being that size to survive, so no problem." Whether we delve into the *actual* biological mechanisms necessary to allow this is a fun exercise, but sometimes I think we can hand-wave them for the sake of a good space-opera game.

Off Topic, but I couldn't help myself. For your edification, here is a debriefing from an early infiltration of Terran Technology systems by one of our best operatives, when we sent him to gauge the possible threats and uses of Terran Technology back in the 21st century:

<Debriefing Begins>

HQ: Ensign Tailbiter, you are here to explain the results of your spying mission on the Terrans.

Ensign Tailbiter: Yes, Professor. I was assigned to “Power Technology and History”

HQ: And your report seems rather… contraversial.

Ensign Tailbiter: Well, yes. But their records are quite explicit.

HQ: Could you recap please? You mention that the Terrans have been using the “Sacred Stones” for some time now.

Ensign Tailbiter: Yes sir. They refer to the energies as “Radioactivity”, but it’s basically the same thing. Do… Do I have permission to speak heretically, sir?

HQ: For the purposes of this debriefing, yes.

Ensign Tailbiter: Thank you. Well… they’ve discovered how to break them. To… to release the energy. They have been building what they call “Nuclear Reactors”. Fission and Fusion. To break the Sacred Stones, or leech off the energies.

HQ: By the shell… is this a religious thing? How does this relate to their power and drive systems?

Ensign Tailbiter: It’s in the report, sir. It’s for their… I mean, they… look, do you remember when you were a child and your egg-parent wouldn’t let you use the food-synthesizer to make cup-noodle?

HQ: Of course. In fact Professor StormWraith has proved that Cup Noodle is one of the Galactic Food Constants.

Ensign Tailbiter: Exactly. Well, you know how if you couldn’t use the synthesizer you’d have to sneak outside and use a bed-warmer to heat the water for the cup noodle? Well… the Terrans use the Sacred Stones for that…

HQ; You mean… They… after all the dangers and knowledge needed to even DISCOVER the Sacred Stones, let alone handle them safely… the Humans are using “Radiation” to… boil a Kettle?!?!?

Ensign Tailbiter: Yes, sir. To boil a kettle. A really big one. And then the use that power… to turn a crank, and turn THAT into electricity and kinetic energies.

Ensign Tailbiter: Apparently not. They just… don’t seem to want to think about it anymore.

HQ: Why is their planet not a blazing star then? This makes no sense at all.

Ensign Tailbiter: I have no idea sir – I was assigned to Power Research, not XenoBiology. I don’t envy whoever you assigned to THAT one.

HQ: Well… this is all very disturbing, Ensign. Thank you for your report. Make sure you report to the chaplain for religious decontamination after this interview. But really… to boil water? For Cup Noodle?

Without ANY reserve.... the Gnolam, Elerian, and an aquatic race need to be restored to this game,

Regarding how an aquatic-based life form would be able to evolve and take its place in the stars.... or reasons to embrace an aquatic race:

1) it's a game, so... don't think on it too much. That is like trying to rationalize cartoon physics - it ain't worth it. Just enjoy the ride and the dynamic it would add to the game to have a race that preferred large aquatic planets.

2) in order for a race to evolve & leave their world and explore the heavens... well,... they can be amphibious (although that is sort of what the Sakkra are supposed to be about). An amphibious race is likely the only most-probable aquatic race that would be able to evolve to space exploration.

3) Star Trek IV - The Voyage Home. Yep... a whole Star Trek movie based on the premise of a race of evolved whales that once placed their genetic material on earth in the form of humpback whales... who eventually work with Capt Kirk and Spock to save the Earth from the Space-whales' Stellar Converter. I am NOT kidding... if you are too young to have seen this... go download it.

4) WHY are you so mind-set on the aquatic race being fish or squid-like? Why not an evil race of walrus - mammals that rely on the sea BUT that have evolved to use tools and eventually explore space? Maybe a race of sophisticated Penguins that over time evolved thumbs but still retained their natural habitat around the sea. Or the ruthless Sea-Otter race... with their stealthy ability to work miracles with hyper-drives, but a need to hang out at the local oyster bar and "pick your own oysters" fresh from the sea. The Polar Bear race... enemies of the Bulrathi... these guys want a cold wet world where the fishing is great AND they have a life-time supply of Coke Classic with their images on the bottles (see 80's and 90's pop-culture). AND FINALLY, my favorite aquatic race, the Beaveroidians... a beaver based race that needs a large wet homeworld to build their VERY impressive giant mud-dam replica cities that now house millions of beavers working very hard to go out in the galaxy to seek other planets to harvest their wood and make more BIG dams full of lots of water and fish to eat (if you EVER lived near beavers you KNOW this is their mind-set...sheesh!).

The possibilities are endless.... embrace an aquatic race.. and ENJOY1

I do think they had a decent idea in brining in different races for that game. Problem is everything else that didn't get off the ground... I for one would absolutely love to see a parasitic race in some sort of expansion.

I would love to see a revival of the gaseous life forms, but it may be impossible. The Harvester race ithkul as for them just slap them on the terrans or replace them with the terrans and give back the MrrShan their pride.

TRILARIANS MUST COME BACK, it would be un ethical to forget about the Trilarians.